Germany's obsession with the gummy bear, or "Gummibärchen" began in Bonn, Germany. A confectioner named Johannes "Hans" Riegel, Sr. founded Haribo in 1920 and shortly after, introduced the gummy bear in 1922. The name Haribo comes from an acronym formed from Hans Riegel, Bonn. Today, Haribo produces over a 100 MILLION gummy bears a day throughout the world. As the Haribo slogan says, "HARIBO macht Kinder froh und Erwachsene ebenso!" or Haribo makes children happy and adults as well!

A... Mit Ohren Amazon.com

Where can you get this magical candy? EVERYWHERE! Most stores, whether they be a pharmacy, gas station, hardware, or grocery store will have an aisle or area that will be dominated by Haribo. My village supermarket has an entire aisle dedicated to gummies. Browsing the gummy aisle, you can see that Haribo has come up with some pretty great things. There are snails, pacifiers, sour french fires, gummies with yogurt, happy cherries, peaches, wine flavor, sour apples, and many more. There is an insult in Germany, "Arsch mit Ohren", which translates to a** with ears. Apparently, Haribo made that a gummy also. They also dominate the market in black licorice, or lakritz, but a competitor may have them with these Salzige Heringe. Delish!

You can take a trip to the first and original Haribo store in Bonn, which is about 2.5 hours from Kaiserslautern. There you can browse the over 200-square meter store and put together a bag of your favorite Haribo treats. They have an enormous selection of gummy candies in every size, shape, flavor you can think of. They have also developed vegetarian, sugar-free, organic and chemical free specialties.

Germany loves these little bears so much, there is a wildly popular song with the kids, "Ich bin dein Gummibar"....my daughter came home 2 weeks ago singing it after a birthday party and hasn't stopped since.....